Powerful Pair: Protectionism and the Presidency

White House wields outsize clout to direct nation’s path on trade

With an overvalued dollar and a growing trade deficit, the Republican president needed to fulfill an election promise to protect manufacturers from foreign imports. So he stunned the world by imposing a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports.

A scene from a future Donald Trump presidency? Actually, it’s what Richard Nixon did in 1971.